The Little Prince Espresso

“Indeed, as I learned, there were on the planet where the little prince lived – as on all planets – good plants and bad plants. In consequence, there were good seeds from good plants, and bad seeds from bad plants. But seeds are invisible. They sleep deep in the heart of the earth’s darkness, until someone among them is seized with the desire to awaken. Then this little seed will stretch and begin – timidly at first, to push a charming little sprig inoffensively upward towards the sun. If it is only a sprout of radish or the sprig of a rose bush, one would let it grow wherever it might wish. But when it is a bad plant, one must destroy it as soon as possible, the very first instant one recognizes.

Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab. The soil of that planet was infested with them. A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it with its roots. And the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces.

“It’s a question of discipline,” the little prince said to me later on. “… You must see to it that you pull out regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be distinguished from the rose bushes which they resemble so closely in their earliest youth. It is very tedious work,” the little prince added, “but very easy.”

I have never doubted why this tale of a little prince has lasted for so many centuries and remain the source of inspiration for the many of us seeking insight in life’s experiences.

Truth is always simple and clear, it is our minds and egos which complicates matters.

For some reason, on that Sunday in Brisbane, this segment of the story jumped out at me. It resonated a lot with what I’ve read over the past few years, about the positive and negative seeds within us, and about how if we are not mindful about which seeds we water (or which wolf we feed), we could end up living with the less than desirable consequences.